Will Mobile Gaming Ever Kill the Consoles?

The Razer Phone was just launched a few days ago and if anyone had any confusion regarding how potent the smartphone market is for the gaming industry, Razer’s entry has possibly made things pretty clear. Now, the question is, does it mean that smartphones and other mobile devices can replace consoles in the future? The answer is too complex to be answered with a simple yes or no, so let us look at a few factors at play here as we try to predict the future, based on cold, hard facts.

Mobile Gaming is More Convenient

It’s true! Most mobile games are easy to play and have simple interactive controls that almost anyone can pick up. On the other hand, full-blown console games involve complex controls and require a lot more attention and time to learn, making them mostly unsuitable for casual gamers. Then there’s the portability factor, which adds further to the convenience. Whether you are in bed or on a train, you can continue playing on your phone or tablet. This is something that you cannot do with regular consoles like the Xbox One or PS4.

The Freemium Model Works on Mobile

The free-to-play and pay-to-win model somehow works in the mobile space and companies like Miniclip and Supercell have seen some tremendous daily profits from micro-transactions. While it is considered to be a bane of mobile gaming by many, the fact that it works so well will likely draw even more major developers towards the mobile platform in the near future.

Consoles will Always be More Powerful

The iPad Pro 2017 is an extremely powerful tablet that has for the first-time produced performances that rival some of the low-mid range windows laptops powered by the Intel Core-i5 processors. Nevertheless, it’s still no match for the likes of the PS4 Pro or the Xbox One. The fact is that while mobile phones and tablets might become more powerful than older-gen consoles, the newer consoles will always be inevitably more powerful. It’s a matter of size really! A bigger machine will house more firepower, which will mean better visuals, audio, and more space to improve.

The Convenience of Dedicated Controllers and Bigger Screens

There’s only so much the human eye can see on a tiny five or six-inch display and irrespective of how good the display of the device is and how brilliant the visuals are, they will always look better on a 40-inch plus TV. If you are even remotely familiar with console gaming, you will know that the experience of using full-blown console controllers to control your actions is infinitely superior to the limitations of a touch-based control system. Sure, some controllers are supported in some games, but then you will have to look at the tiny phone display from at least a bit of distance and that makes no sense when you can do the same thing on a much bigger display and with greater ease while playing better games!

To answer the question in the title, one would have to say that mobile gaming cannot kill console gaming, not really. But, can it take over a portion of the market? It already has!

I had to consult a Mafia 2 walkthrough the other day because the game is so vast and I wanted the 100% completion trophy, but that bewildering vastness is what I like about some console games – and that’s just one of many things that will keep gamers glued to their consoles for a long time to come.

To sum it all up, mobile gaming is for casual gamers and they will prefer it to full-blown consoles in the future, but people who like a bit more complexity, challenge, and better multiplayer in their gaming ventures, will stick to their consoles.